Maria has been running the Day Worker Center almost a decade and she has worked with day workers for over fourteen years. Maria’s passion, diplomacy, and her ability to make allies of so many people is the reason that the Day Worker Center of Mountain View has a permanent facility that has served as its home for the past three years. The Day Worker Center of Mountain View currently runs out of a permanent, worker-maintained building; services are provided, lives are changed, volunteer opportunities are available, ESL classes are taught every day, and men and women find dignified employment in the building that Maria, and the many people she rallied, made a reality.
The Day Worker Center’s mission is to connect workers and employers in a safe and supportive environment; empower workers to improve their socio-economic condition through fair employment, education, and job skills training; and participate in advocacy efforts that support the day laborer community. Workers take English language classes each morning as they wait for work. The evenings are filled with computer and other skill building classes. A hot lunch is cooked by and for the workers each day; for some it is their only hot meal of the day. And a Gardner Health Clinic van comes to provide free medical services.
Maria Marroquin is such a humble and grounded person, but at the same time such an extraordinary leader. She is affectionately referred to as a “graduate” of the Day Worker Center, having utilized its services to find work and eventually leading the center to an unprecedented level of autonomy that lends to empowering day workers and providing the tools needed for people from all backgrounds who fall on hard times to get back on their feet.
We are so happy to congratulate Maria Marroquin for being awarded the Bay Area Local Hero title and we thank her for all her hard work in the community!
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